Significance of the residual stress monitoring in the automotive industry

Abstract

Determination of the residual stress is highly important because it has a strong effect on the lifetime of the component and it can cause deformation or failure during the manufacturing. Nowadays, the residual stress characterization became an everyday requirement in the automotive industry. Forasmuch as every producing process (casting, heat treating, different kinds of metal deformation processes and surface compressing methods etc.) influences the residual stress state, therefore it can be very complex and various within the components. If the effect of these processes are known, it is possible to reach such a stress state in the component which can enhance its lifetime and quality, and with an optimized process, the costs could be reduced. Several methods exist for measuring the residual stress. With this paper, our purpose is to introduce the non-destructive residual stress measuring by XRD, and show quantitative characterization and stress monitoring from the automotive and machine industry.